People Take Jenna Jameson’s Return to Porn Personally

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Jenna Jameson’s return to adult entertaining, by way of the mostly amateur cam site MyFreeCams.com (MFC), has unleashed a particularly porny blend of schadenfreude, adoration, and misogyny. It has really given some people Big Feelings, and they are Using Their Words all over the internet.

“Did you get old or did Tito fuck you up?” types MFC user cameron778.

“You are truly wonderful in every way,” gushes Dirtytricks. “Meeting you made my night tonight and you shall now forever be one of my favorite models. Thanks for being so friendly and sweet, i hope we get to know each other very well Hope youll drop by my wall and leave a comment too, id be honored. Stay sweet.”

In a Dawgs Saloon thread titled “Jenna Jameson CamWHOREING,” user Night Ape states, “How the mighty have fallen.. to their knees.. for $40.”

“Holy shit, I am in presence of adult entertainment royalty. #I’mNotWorthy,” writes Asian Nate.

Jameson stayed away from porn for several years, famously (at least in these circles) declaring at the AVN Awards in January, 2008 that she would not “spread (her) legs for this industry again.”

Just think about that statement. Not “I will no longer appear in movies; I prefer you to remember me a certain way,” but a venomous brush-off negating the very thing porn is about. And that’s the way she felt; she was over it.

Jameson conceived twin boys with MMA star Tito Ortiz, giving birth in 2009, and settled in for a porn-free but occasionally tabloid-haunted life with Ortiz, that up to and following their breakup included mutual allegations of domestic abuse and drug use, Jameson’s DUI, and her loss, this April, of the custody of her sons to Ortiz.

I met Jenna three times. Twice when I interviewed her for AVN in the early years of this century and then, when I accepted Teagan Presley’s plaque for her at the XRCO Awards, Jenna walked up to me and said, “Good job, Teagan.”

She was a millionaire who was always nice to me, and I admit that I rooted for her to not need to come back. She had made it so clear in 2008 that she wouldn’t miss it, and that she wanted to make her money any other way.

But then The World’s Most Famous Porn Star accepted a gig hosting next year’s XBiz Awards, and I wondered if, for the first time in her career, Jenna Jameson was following Tera Patrick’s lead.

Tera Patrick was and remains beautiful, one of the few adult stars who came to the business as a bona fide mainstream model. Patrick was dark and exotic compared with Jameson’s blonde and überporny.

Patrick’s career arc was similar to Jameson’s, but shallower for having started later. Successful beyond the scope of most of her porn contemporaries, Patrick still played second fiddle to Jameson. Teravision was no ClubJenna, Evan Seinfeld was no Tito Ortiz and, though it is an excellent book, Patrick’s brave autobiography “Sinner Takes All” did not sell nearly as well as Jameson’s New York Times bestselling “How To Make Love Like A Porn Star.” Even Patrick’s retirement was less sensational than Jameson’s.

If Douglas MacArthur had been a porn star—and who says he wasn’t—he might have quipped, “Old porn stars never die; they just pull out.” Patrick pulled out, but gently.

Had Patrick started a few years earlier, things might have been different. But porn was already changing by the time Jenna shot her last movie in 2005 while Patrick’s star was just cresting. There would not be another Jenna because porn’s saturation just couldn’t support it.

But then Patrick returned to an adult business starving for cash and for stars. She hosted this year’s XBiz Awards, appeared (in the strategic Arnold Schwarzenegger cameo) in “The Expendables” porn parody, and became a cam model.

People leave porn for two reasons; they no longer like it and it is no longer paying. But sometimes absence makes the heart grow fonder, the wallet looser.

And Monday, as “The RealJenna,” Jameson opened for business—if not her legs—on MyFreeCams.com, one of the most popular sites for fans to interact with nude models online, but with a distinctly DIY vibe—not porno-glamorous at all.

The form this comeback has taken says a lot about porn’s scope and the porn fan.

Jameson is a hit. Her CamScore—the measure of her MFC popularity—is, at this writing, more than 19,000.

“New girls always start at 1000,” says Christina Parreira, a favorite on MyFreeCams. “1000 is the baseline. Depending how much money a model makes in a certain amount of time, the score goes up or down. When the score is high, it gets models to the front page. That means more exposure. Jenna joined (Monday). Her cam score is 19,000. That is insane.”

But some other models fret that Jameson might draw away business from an overwhelmingly amateur community with little porn star crossover.

“It’s a bit of a WTF for your average cam girl,” says pinup Melly May. “I mean, (Jameson’s) only had her own porn empire for decades. It feels a bit unnecessary, no?”

Not unnecessary if you need the money. The sad fact is that Jameson’s fame makes “needing the money” a vadge of dishonor. It’s not just slut-shaming, it’s poverty-shaming.

While all the comments on Jameson’s personal page are positive, if not rapturous, the form many negative comments take note a fall from grace, from beauty, and from financial security. And the writers are right there to revel, one-handed, in Jameson’s reduced circumstances.

The truth is, no one returns to the porn industry in 2013 unless there is no money to be had elsewhere. In addition to Jameson’s profile mentioning “ass” twice, she also describes a Perfect Mate as “someone to take amazing care of me.”

Meanwhile, for every adult entertainer who believes Jameson’s return after so public a farewell is hypocrisy, or who thinks Jameson will steal her business, there’s another who is starstruck.

“The models in her room have bigger boners than the members,” tweets @mfc_truth. “It’s like the circus just arrived.”

It does not seem likely that Jameson has returned for a second act, a way to tackle some unfinished business. She’s not like Richard Nixon, who also once declared he would not spread his legs for this industry and returned, eight years later, to become President.

No, Jameson has returned, out of need, to a place she didn’t want to see again. Has that ever happened to you?

It’s possible that this is why people are taking Jameson’s comeback so personally. Her star power in this little corner of the world is revealed in how much fan and hater are taking her return to heart.

But it would be nice, and kind, and thoughtful, if people would not take such pleasure in kicking Jameson when they assume she is down. She never did anything to you. She just got older, and poorer, as far as you’re concerned, and no one should be criticized for that.

Previously on Porn Valley Observed: Jenna Jameson and the future of the porn superstar; AVN 2008 wrap-up: I will never spread my commentary on this awards show again; Gram’s Index 2008; “Flashpoint X: Back(draft) to the Future”
See Also: Jenna Jameson on MyFreeCams

About Gram the Man 4399 Articles
Gram Ponante is America's Beloved Porn Journalist

2 Comments

  1. Well said, G. I see it as a shame, inasmuch as I also root for people that leave of their own accord NOT to come back (despite how I personally feel about them and my need to see them do nekkid things). That being said, with the way she blasted the industry on her way out, not so much burning bridges but carpet-bombing them with napalm, it’s kind of funny that she’s sort of back, on a cam site at that.

    I *do* feel bad for the amateurs there who are now losing money because Jenna’s taking it all, but that’s the risk you take. Like Qui Gonn said: There’s always a bigger fish.

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